Gathering Assorted Items of Baseball History and Trivia

After his game, the New York Times interviewed several people. Larsen’s mom, Charlotte, said: “I make it a rule never to watch Don when he pitches. Seems like every time I watch him, he loses. So I just don’t do it. I didn’t today and see what happened.”

Ernie Shore, the Red Sox pitcher who retired 27 in a row in relief of Babe Ruth in a game in the 1910s and in 1956 was the sheriff of Forsyth County in North Carolina, applauded: “Wonderfully pitched. That Larsen deserves a lot of credit. I don’t believe he was ever in a hole.”

Yankee right fielder Hank Bauer on a near-homer by Sandy Amoros in the fifth inning: “When I saw that ball heading for the right-field seats I was ready to concede the homer. But when it hooked foul by this much (three inches) I was the happiest guy in the park.”

Charlie Robertson, a pecan broker in Fort Worth and pitcher of the last previous perfect game, in 1922: “I was traveling by car yesterday and didn’t know anything about Larsen’s game until I got home about 2 a.m. today.”

Home plate umpire Babe Pinelli told Larsen: “You were wonderful, just wonderful. [Larsen had] the greatest pin-point control I’ve ever seen. Even if the Dodgers had not swung at some of those slow curves they would have been strikes.”

Finally, the Times reported:

A discordant marital note marred yesterday’s day of baseball triumph for Don Larsen. The Yankee pitcher was notified that his estranged wife Vivian had filed a Supreme Court action seeking to withhold his world series money. Mrs. Larsen charged that Larsen was delinquent in his support payments and that he had subjected her and their 14-months-old daughter “to the pleasures of a starvation existence.”

The pitcher’s wife charged that he had deserted her three months after their marriage on April 23, 1955. Her affidavit asserted that Don had left her “with no intention of returning because he was not ready to settle down and preferred a life of free and easy existence.”

Later yesterday, Larsen sent his wife $420, her lawyer, Harry H. Lipsig, reported. Lipsig declined to say whether the payment would affect her court suit. The order charged that Larsen had not sent any money to his wife since July, and that he owed her the $420 under a court directive requiring him to pay her $60 a week for support.